The city of Oceanside’s RE:BEACH project is a coastal resilience competition. It brought in three design teams from around the world to develop innovative pilot projects to replenish sand on the beach and keep it there longer.
Only one team and design will be chosen and presented to city council.
"The three design teams thus far have really done conceptual work. So they've been asking questions like, 'Who is Oceanside? Who are we delivering these solutions to? What's the future of Oceanside look like?'" said Jayme Timberlake, the coastal administrator for the city of Oceanside.
The city is holding public workshops to share the concepts. She said the first workshop drew large crowds, and the firms wanted to learn more about what type of design the city was looking for.
Some concepts included a new pier, peninsulas, and beach extensions, all doubling public use and access.
"They introduced us to things like artificial headlands and artificial reefs, and how those types of structures in the ocean and in the near shore area could slow down sediment transport and actually widen our beach by just slowing down the sand," she said.
The second workshop being held will have refined concepts and designers will collect more community feedback.
"The design teams will also be talking about how their proposed pilot project will meet the objectives of the design competition," Timberlake said. "So some of these objectives are physical, environmental (and) financial."
Timberlake said many eyes are on the RE:BEACH project because it's not a problem isolated to Oceanside. Other cities up and down the coast are dealing with disappearing beaches and are on the search for a solution.
"It's been a great year of collaborating with neighbors to the north and neighbors to the south ... and Oceanside is trying to be very inclusive with our project," she said. "And I think everyone is very receptive to it because, in the end, what we are helping with is trying to identify different solutions that other jurisdictions can also use on their coastline."
Tonight's workshop is underway at Oceanside’s Museum of Art until 7 p.m.
The final workshop will be held on December 13 where designers will unveil their final designs. A location for the workshop has yet to be determined.
